Wiretap: Immigration reform… it will get more nasty, soon

The New York Times reports that Barack Obama will use his executive authority, as early as next week, to protect as many as five million illegal immigrants from deportation. The Washington Post says it could be six million – or more than half of those here illegally — and that the GOP is split on how to respond. What’s clear is that it will almost certainly get nasty. Republicans have promised to fight the order “tooth and nail.” No one should doubt the intensity of the backlash, which could even lead to a government shutdown.

Republicans beat the Democrats in the midterms. But how would they do against the Pope — the one who believes in science? Via the New Yorker.

Danny Vinik writes in the New Republic that Obamacare expert Jon Gruber was just being honest about how laws get passed. Charles Krauthammer writes in the National Review that Gruber arrogantly showed that Obamacare was sold “on a pack of lies.”

Linda Greenhouse, the longtime New York Times correspondent on the Supreme Court, on the court’s decision to take up the latest politically motivated legal attack on Obamacare: A friend says, “This is Bush v. Gore all over again.” Greenhouse replies: “No, it’s worse.”

Elizabeth Warren gets a place with the Senate leadership. Are they just trying to co-opt her? Via the Atlantic.

What a panel of Colorado political reporters say they learned from the midterm elections: How the candidates completely controlled the narrative. Via the Columbia Journalism Review.

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“I write to express my concern regarding reports that you plan on issuing an executive order that purports to grant legal status and work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants after the November elections. My concerns center around the effect such grant of legal status will have on two subsets of American workers: low-skilled workers: particularly low-skilled black workers, and high-skilled STEM workers.”

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